With the new year here, many teams will be looking for fresh starts to their respective seasons.

The Charles Henderson boys varsity squad is one of those teams.

A fresh start just may be what the doctor order for the Trojans as the first two months has had its fair share of ups and downs.

After beginning the season 4-2, CHHS has dropped four-straight games, for a 4-6 record, as it begins Area play tonight against Carroll High School at home.

However, according to head coach Carl Hollis, he is not sure which team is going to come out to the floor, the Trojans that won four of six games, or the Trojans who are on the losing skid.

“It is going to be hard to tell how this team will play the rest of the season,” Hollis said at the team’s practice Monday night.

“I am a firm believer in the saying ‘You play the way you practice,’ and the way we are practicing is not going to help us get any better.

“We have had a sloppy practice [Monday] – how we play against Carroll will be up to the kids themselves,” the coach added.

During this losing streak, the Trojans have not shot the ball well – from anywhere on the court.

The Trojans have shot close to 35 percent from the floor and around 21 percent from the 3-point line.

But that is not the only thing that has plagued CHHS this season, according to Hollis.

“Three of four of our loses have come because we made bad decisions, especially towards the end of the game,” Hollis said.

“I haven’t seen the poise or patience that I know we have. Hopefully, we start playing like I know this team can but we will see what happens.”

The Trojans will look to get break the losing streak against a familiar opponent in the Eagles.

One of the similarities in both school is their recent schedule as both teams recently lost to the Whitefield Academy of Atlanta in the Dothan Eagle/ Dothan Progress Holiday Prep Classic.

“I couldn’t tell too much about Carroll [from watching them against Whitefield in the Prep Classic last week].

“[Whitefield] did the same thing to Carroll that it did to us – they wouldn’t let us do anything,” Hollis said.

The coach mentioned that Carroll was a team that CHHS knows fairly well thanks to summer league.

Both teams faced one another twice.

“We know [Carroll] pretty well and they know us pretty well – it’s going to come down to us being able to stop their game first.”

But what it will come down in the end, according to Hollis is his own team and their willingness to play.

“The biggest thing I try to tell the kids is that they have to want it,” the coach said.

“If they want [to win] they will prepare like they know they should.

“We are a lot better team than our record shows but we can’t change what has already happened,” Hollis added.

And even though the team has struggled, the coach said there is still plenty of time to make up for the early season losses.

“We still got a lot of the season left to play,” he said. “A lot can happen.”

“It just really comes down to the players,” Hollis added.